Looks pretty rough with many missing parts. Is it worth fixing? Did he pay too much?
Guy buys plane once owned by Elvis for $234K
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Looks pretty rough with many missing parts. Is it worth fixing? Did he pay too much?
I wouldn't have bought it. However, it would be cool to have.
How do you get it home?
GON
$150 Site Donor 2025
I suspect one removes the wings, and puts the fuselage on a flatbed.
It's junk. Sometimes I think auctions are run up high, the buyer pays huge fees, and pats the seller on the back saying " let's sell this next year ole buddy."
A hunk, a hunk of....somethin'.
It's junk. And this guy said at the end of the video that it cost more than his house, and he had to leverage himself with everything he owns to get this.
Not a wise move IMO. There's a reason nobody bid on it and the winner backed out.
I doubt one could economically make it airworthy. And that's not where the value is. The real value is as an attraction. It would take a lot of $10 tickets to recoup the $234,000 + whatever transport/repair and storage costs to even break even. I'd have to guess he's going to be into it at least $300,000, possibly a lot more, just to restore it, and park it, insure it, and put it open for the public to tour. Assuming $300k, selling tickets at $10 each, he'd need to push 30,000 people thru to break even. 100 people per day, figure 8 years to break even once it's open. A really, really bad investment.
By contrast when I visited Graceland 15 years ago a nice Elvis plane was on display. The entire Memphis Graceland with the plane tour is $50 per adult. So the plan tour is maybe 1/10th of that value. And unlike random plane, people will drive to see where Elvis lived and all his memorabilia.
IMO a very very bad investment.
Not a wise move IMO. There's a reason nobody bid on it and the winner backed out.
I doubt one could economically make it airworthy. And that's not where the value is. The real value is as an attraction. It would take a lot of $10 tickets to recoup the $234,000 + whatever transport/repair and storage costs to even break even. I'd have to guess he's going to be into it at least $300,000, possibly a lot more, just to restore it, and park it, insure it, and put it open for the public to tour. Assuming $300k, selling tickets at $10 each, he'd need to push 30,000 people thru to break even. 100 people per day, figure 8 years to break even once it's open. A really, really bad investment.
By contrast when I visited Graceland 15 years ago a nice Elvis plane was on display. The entire Memphis Graceland with the plane tour is $50 per adult. So the plan tour is maybe 1/10th of that value. And unlike random plane, people will drive to see where Elvis lived and all his memorabilia.
IMO a very very bad investment.
Lockheed 1329 Jetstar
I understand there are already two jets on display at Graceland.
Four engines.
It is virtually worthless if he can not get it to some location with some other kind of attractions. Also would need to be refurbished in some manner $$$$.
This type of Elvis item will continue to rapidly degrade in value as his fans age out and die off. Graceland will be the one artifact which hold its value for some time to come.
This type of Elvis item will continue to rapidly degrade in value as his fans age out and die off. Graceland will be the one artifact which hold its value for some time to come.
How much will he have in the plane by the time he pays to have it taken apart, shipped, reassembled, buys parts to make it look like an airplane again, paints it, puts new glass in it, advertises to get crowds of people to see the airplane that Elvis rode in 50 years ago, etc. This is a $750,000 endeavor just to get to the point of the first person arriving with money in hand to see the "Elvis plane". How many people still care about Elvis? I believe he made a huge mistake and this will never see a penny of profit. I hope he proves us wrong.
Interesting tidbit from the YouTube comments. If you go to his previous video at the auction and skip to 15:39 it certainly seems like there's a high probability that he got taken for a ride on this one.
Certainly lots of people play games at auctions. You need to know what your limit is and not get carried away.
Well said!
GON
$150 Site Donor 2025
Many good comments in this thread, along with a lot of lessons learned.
The biggest lesson so far in this thread is the extreme risk of being a buyer at a auction.
The biggest lesson so far in this thread is the extreme risk of being a buyer at a auction.
Oh yes, then "Jimmy" definitely got scammed.
I watched the videos. Order of bidding:
Opening Bid starts at $500k, then falls to $300k, then is basically just "open bid."
"Jimmy" bids $50,000
[Slow and a complete lack of interest among any live person in attendance.]
"Phone bidder #1" bid $100,000. (That's a very suspicious bid jump.)
"Phone bidder #2 bid $150,000 (Another highly suspect price jump.)
[Slow and a complete lack of interest among any live person in attendance.]
"Phone bidder #1" bids $200,000 (Again, highly suspect price jump of another $50k on an item with no real person interest.)
[Slow and a complete lack of interest among any live person in attendance.]
"Jimmy" bids $210,000.
Then it goes up in $10,000 increments between the 3, until it caps out with "Phone bidder #2" bleeding Jimmy and winning at $260,000.
Then, the phone call where the two "Phone bidders" backed out and it's offered to Jimmy for his last bid. The given explanation is totally implausible that the "Phone bidders" didn't "understand" the dollar amount they were bidding. That is simply impossible.
JIMMY got totally scammed. His first hint was NOBODY in person was bidding on this thing. There was NO real interest. And it had gone thru a prior auction without success. Listening to the seller on the phone, they are just desperate to get rid of this plane. IF I were him I'd get an attorney and back out. This is an obvious fraud here. This plane is not worth much at all.
And, I'll say it again, JIMMY is not a smart person. He's said he leveraged his house for this plane. I am staggered at how some people operate with so little sophistication and financial knowledge.
Here's another question that needs to be asked: what documentation exists to show Elvis had anything to do with this aircraft? Did he ever actually own it or even just ride in it once? The whole deal stinks.
In the classic car world, if you claim some famous person owned a vehicle, you need to be able to prove it. I could try to sell my Ranger to some rube for $100K by saying Bill Gates once owned it, but that wouldn't fly (no pun intended).
This aircraft sale is like paying $10K for one of the TVs Elvis shot, smashed picture tube and all. Yes, there was more than one.
In the classic car world, if you claim some famous person owned a vehicle, you need to be able to prove it. I could try to sell my Ranger to some rube for $100K by saying Bill Gates once owned it, but that wouldn't fly (no pun intended).
This aircraft sale is like paying $10K for one of the TVs Elvis shot, smashed picture tube and all. Yes, there was more than one.
"Not everything at the auction is junk, but all the junk is at the auction."
That's the red flag for me. The whole "He said $240k and that's not what we had him entered in for"/"Didn't understand" thing... then when Jimmy still doesn't bite it's "AND he wants to renegotiate his buyer's premium"...
Who knows? Auctions are a sleazy business in general and it looked like Jimmy was sitting in a Bentley, so I think he'll be okay.
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